The sight of half ton trucks and bands of ice fisherman parked in the middle of Lake Harriet at 6am on a winter’s morning can seem bizarre at first, but it’s quintessential Minneapolis in its demonstration of simpler pleasures; most of the fish that get caught are thrown straight back in. One end of the […]

Tampa has been blessed with one of the best year round climates on the American continent, attracting a host of outgoing twenty-somethings from across the US. There are over 160 parks and plenty of beaches in which to enjoy the weather, while the youthful citizenry have generated a fantastic cultural scene replete with innovative arts […]

Historically one of America’s most revolutionary cities, the unofficial capital of New England remains a forward-thinking and liberal leader in contentious political issues. There are hordes of higher education facilities lurking amid twisting streets, creating a highly educated and discerning populace, and a strong, intellectual cultural base is complimented by a twenty-first century explosion in […]

Arrive in Washington and it’s inevitable that you’ll soon be talking politics. Spend any length of time here and you’ll come to appreciate more than ever the world-changing dream upon which the nation is founded. It’s a city of bricks and mortar like any other but it’s also the most iconographic city in history, and […]

The Cuyahoga River that flows through Cleveland once had an unfortunate reputation of a river of fire, being so polluted that it actually burned. Yet modern Cleveland has cleaned up its act in more ways than one; drawing on both the influx of money brought by the industrial tycoons and its own earthy, working-class roots, […]

From rather modest beginnings in 1847, when it was founded as a Mormon retreat by the prophet Brigham Young, Salt Lake City boomed with the laying of the first transcontinental railway through the town. Originally populated by religious converts, the discovery of mineral wealth in the surrounding country brought greater economic prosperity, and today the […]

Approach Chicago by water and the reflected cityscape of towering skyscrapers might leave you speechless; particularly at night when the glittering luminescence makes it appear as the Milky Way fallen to earth. Once famed for the legend of Al Capone and murky underworld of organised crime, Chicago today is the ‘most American of American cities’, […]

From Hollywood to Starbucks to the ‘American Dream’, the USA has so relentlessly exported its culture around the globe that many of us feel that we know it already. The country is far from a monoculture though and there remains plenty to explore. LA, Las Vegas, Miami and New York all have their own international […]

If you’ve always dreamed of playing cowboy for a day, then Amarillo is the city for you. A popular stop on the US major 1-40 route, this Texas gem retains a strong Old West flavour that’ll have you strutting down the highway like John Wayne in his heyday. There’s more to Amarillo than it’s cattle […]

The founding of the Ford Motor Company in 1904 changed the course of history, as far as Detroit was concerned. Already a prominent manufacturing base, it was to become a boom-town that doubled in size over the next two decades, with tens of thousands of immigrant workers flocking to fill the factories of the new […]

One of the greenest in America, Austin also tops polls for the least stressful and most friendly city in the country. Southern hospitality meets a lively student culture, while Town Lake in particular is regularly host to top class performers as the city has styled itself the ‘live musical capital of the world’. The ‘Keep […]

The Independence National Historical Park, quietly ensconced within Philadelphia’s sprawling borders, is widely regarded as the most historically significant square mile in the US; this is, after all, where the country itself was conceived. Indeed, this has been an almost unfortunate adornment for a city that became known as ‘corrupt and contented’ during the early […]